When creating a user interface (UI) for an application (e.g., mobile applications that may be executable on mobile devices running the iOS™ or Android™ operating system), a programmer or software developer typically writes source code using an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) or text editor. To generate the application, the source code is translated (e.g., via a compilation or interpretation process) into machine code which can be executed by a processor on the computing device.
When creating a user interface for the application, programmers are typically required to manually code the user interface using programming language units (e.g., class definitions) provided by the operating system. For example, they may manually code the user interface by entering the parameters for the programming language units into the source code. Alternatively, an interface editor (such as Interface Builder™ for iOS™) may be used to visually construct the user interface. Source code may be generated from the interface editor which can then be compiled into executable code. In further embodiments, eXtensible Markup Language (XML) may be manually coded, and the resultant XML data may be used to generate the user interface. Using these traditional methods, any changes desired to be made to parameters of the user interface elements would typically require a re-compilation of the source code and the generation of a new executable.
There is thus a need for improved systems and methods for developing an application.